The Fault in Our Stars by John Green, Shines

 "Sometimes the universe wants to be noticed."  Sometimes we are fortunate to take stock in the wonders of life & the world around.  Sometimes, we benefit from gentle reminders.  Green's novel  of teenaged star crossed lovers, eloquently portrays two intelligent individuals we fully embrace.  Hazel (16) & Augustus (17) & Isaac meet in a cancer youth support group.  All 3 form a mutual friendship, and Hazel & Augustus, a mutual attraction to each other.  Augustus, a star athlete, has lost a leg to cancer, Isaac loses both eyes to the disease and Hazel's lungs are failing.  Green's novel remained on the  #1 NYT's Best Seller List for children's chapter's books for months.  Before you wrongly dismiss this as a weepy tale for teens, I suggest you read this engrossing & mature examination of life's meanings.  Knowing their lives will be cut short, Hazel & Augustus are sagacious & loving beyond their years.  "The world is not a wish granting factory. Pain demands to be felt.  The senses must feast while there is yet hunger."  Most importantly, "We all want to be remembered & loved deeply."  The Fault in Our Stars is unforgettable and a remindeder to appreciate our celestial gifts.

Matrimony, by Joshua Henkin, for Better or Worse?

Matrimony, Joshua Henkin's novel focuses on 2 couples who meet their freshman year (1986) @ college, and fall in love.  Julian Wainwright, born with a silver spoon in his mouth in NYC befriends, Curtis Heinz, a working class scholarship student from Sausalito with a chip on his shoulder that could bring down the Golden Gate Bridge.  Both Julian & Curtis are aspiring writers that become fast & furious friends.  Soon after their bromance, Julian meets & falls in love with Mia - Curtis falls for Pilar and one communal naked hot tub club is born.  Sr. year, while pondering their futures, Mia's mother is diagnosed with terminal cancer. Mia reasons she & Julian should marry before her mother dies.  Julian's amenable, they marry & move off to grad-school purgatory.  Curtis & Mia, move together (unmarried) to SF for law school.  Does love run its smooth course?  No, but neither is the novel an intriguing examination of relationships.  Henkin seemed to put his heart into discussing the methodologies & angsts of a writer.  "When writing, keep it close enough to home that your heart is in it but far enough away that the imaginations can take over."  After 20 years Julian finally has his 1st novel published. "At long long, he cold think of himself as a writer."  Henkin does have his characters ponder "the paths not taken."  Henkin did not steer us on matrimonies' tribulations but delved into the mindset of a writer.  Matrimony is better as a writer's story and worse as a tale of marriage.  

Dear Life: Stories, A.Munroe, A Master Story Teller

Alice Munroe is a Canadian writer & one of the most honored contemporary writer of fiction.  She has received the U.S. Nat'l  Book Critics Circle Award, the Man Booker Int'l Prize for her body of work and ha been a perennial contender for the Nobel Prize.  Ms. Munroe is also one of my most beloved authors whose luminous & deceptively simplistic writing style set a benchmark for excellence.  The collection of stories in Dear Life: Stories, contain themes of social boundaries, urban sophistication vs. rural farmlife, missed opportunities in love & life and life's disappointments.  Munroe's descriptive prose depict Canadian landscapes, particularily the fringes bordering cities.  Many metaphors are incorporated in her stories to infer life's transitions: trains, freeways, rivers, changing seasons.  Her somber & resonating stories are filled with life profundities.  "People have thoughts they'd sooner not have.  It happens in life."  "We say somethings that can't be forgiven.  But we do - we do it all the time."  Ms. Munroe turned 81 this summer & graciously requested not to be considered in contention for any further literary awards.  She has produced a seminal body of work.  There is an added bonus to Munroe's latest work.  The last 4 vignettes in this collection are autobiographical.  "I believe that they are the 1st and the last - the closest things I have to say about my own life."  I hope there will continue to be more stories to come from Ms. Munroe.

Glen Duncan's The Last Werewolf, If Only it Were

Now, for something completely different; well sort of - I chose The Last Werewolf on the Nat'l Bestseller List as a "vacation" book. as a quick read. What I found to my delight, was a uniquely dark & sexy thriller with a very compelling hero, Jake Marlowe, the last surviving werewolf.  Set in modern day, predominately in England, Jake's history takes us back to the early 19th C when he was first "turned" into a werewolf.  "I'm a man. I'm a monster. A cocktail of contraries." This novel is an exotic & absorbing blend of suspense, gore, romance & grief.  Jake bemoans his 200 year existence as wearisome.  He informs his longtime mortal friend, Harley, he plans to end his life. "I've had enough, that it's time to go, that I really can't stand it any more, the living & the killing & the wandering the world without love."  If werewolfs exist, does it mean there are vampires?  Of course, Jake informs us, "Werewolves & vampires don't get on.  Mutual repulsion is visceral & without exception."  Howeer, this novel is not geared for the Twilight set.  It possesses a tale of complex behavior & contemplations.  "You love life because life's all there is.  There's no God & that's His only Commandment."  I commend you to read this novel.  I enjoyed it but for the "final" tawdry confrontation which sets itself for a sequel.  The Last Werewolf will be the last of the series I'll read.

Offspring, Non Fiction, by Andrew Solomon

Offspring was intended to examine how parent's cope with their children who are very different from themselves.  In other words, what happens when a parent has a "horizontal" child rather than a "vertical" child.  Let me translate for this misguided author:  how do parents love their child when they are born with disabilities or sexual orientations different "horizontal" from themselves.  Let me stop you from reading this book.  It is both self-indulgent & condescending .  I have respect and admiration for families whose children have disabilities but I expect nothing short of love & support for their offspring.  I expected to be inspired and learn something about patience & humility.  Instead, I got nothing but self-flagulation in what seemed to me a cathartic exercise for the author to deal with his demons; depression & homosexuality.  "Self-acceptance is part of the ideal but without familial and societal acceptance, it cannot ameliorate the relentless injustice to which many horizontal identity groups are subject."  Mr. Solomon (the name has not lost its irony on me,) this is neither enlightening nor profound.  I gained nothing from your prosletytizing. "The world is made more interesting by having every sort of person in it.  Life is enriched by difficulty, love is made more acute when it requires exertion."  I would have been better off sitting around the campfire singing "We are the world."   Tolerance & empathy for others is vital.  Reading this drivel is a waste of time.

The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey by Walter Mosley

This brilliant novel defies any specific style of fiction.  Mosley is a writer of beautiful prose,  He  embodies the heart & soul of a 90+ year old black man, Ptolemy, suffering from dementia & isolation. His savior comes in the form of a 17 year old black girl, Robyn.  Ptolemy has been living a solitary & fearful existence for years since the death of his 2nd wife.  He lives amidst overwhelming squalor without a working toilet or shower.  His great nephew, Reggie, has been intermittently looking in on Ptolemy.  When Reggie is killed in a drive by shooting, he is brought to the paltry funeral by another distant relative where his grief is palpable.  Robyn, a recent orphan, has found temporary refuge on their sofa.  A symbiotic and loving relationship ensues between the old & frail Ptolemy and the young & vibrant Robyn.  Mosley's writing embodies his hero so completely we experience Ptolemy's confusion, his vulnerabilities,  and his heart.  Walter Mosley is one of America's most critically acclaimed authors.  He has received the O. Henry Award & PEN America's Lifetime Achievement Award. The novel chronicles the brutal & harsh lives of America's Black men a century ago and the bleak lives & opportunities that persist today.   Mosley's prose is a hybrid of history, philosophy, mysticism and the omnipotence of love in all its forms.   "The great man say that life is pain, that mean if you love life, then you love the hurt come along with it."  Ptolemy's paternal love for Robyn grows as she cares for him.   Ptolemy knows his legacy is with Robyn whose love for him will survive after he's gone.  "As long you remembah me, I'ma be alive in you."  This memorable tale of struggle and redemption is destined to become a cherished literary classic.

Butterfly's Child, a novel by A. Davis-Gardner

Butterfly's Child by Angela Davis-Gardner picks up the story where the famous opera, Madame Butterfly, by Puccino, leaves off.  Although I am not a huge fan of opera, I don't live under a rock.  I have attended several productions of Madame Butterfl.  It is a beautiful, poignant opera that tells the all too common tale, of foreigners leaving behind pregnant women & bastard children.  Not only are these women & children abandoned, the children are often shunned as mongrels; mired in a state of povery & purgatory.  The idea of expounding on the tale of what became of Pinkerton's son with his Japanese "Geisha" whom he disavows when returning to Japan is intriguing.  The author begins her story in Nagasaki @ the end of the 19th C.  Cio-Cio & Pinkerton's son is 5 when Pinkerton returns to Nagasaki with his American bride.   Cio-Cio prepares their son to meet his father.  Pinkerton arrives with his new wife whereupon Cio-Cio commits hara-kari to the horror of everyone, including the young boy.  The local Christian minister prevails upon the couple to take the lad back to the United States as the orphaned child will surely suffer a life misery.  Deeming it the "Christian" thing to do, the couple bring the boy back home to their farm in IL  They claim to have adopted the orphaned child renamed Benji.  Pinkerton denying Benji as his son, is hardly the only cruelty Benji endures.  At first, I admired the irrepressible spirit Benji possesses.  However, Benji's life turns into an incredulous journey to return to his native homeland.  The final coupe de grace was when Madame Butterfly the opera, became integral to the novel.  The play within the play had me singing foul.  Don't bother with this melodrama.   Listen to Puccin's opera instead.